Desktops are back again and smaller than ever. The 17 barebones and systems in this test are enough proof of that. We took a look at what you get for your money and discuss for which applications you could use such a device.

The desktop PC is dead - that is usually the picture painted by articles about the state of the PC market. The regular Hardware.Info reader should have a different opinion about this though, since those who want to play the newest games, do some 3D rendering, photo or video editing, will get a lot more horsepower inside an 'old-fashioned' PC case than what will fit in a stylish and thin notebook. Yet it is a fact that the majority of the consumers prefers portable computers with a built-in screen and a battery. Why would we still have desktops then?

Apart from the demanding applications that have just been mentioned, there are of course enough other scenarios where a laptop does not necessarily offer the best experience. For example, a laptop rarely features a high-quality or large display. If you want to work with two large displays, most notebooks will not even offer support for this. A desktop PC offers a better experience for applications that require clear oversight or ones that are rather time-consuming.

I've written a review of the Able2Extract PDF Converter 10 software, including setup and use, significant improvements in quality and speed of conversions to Microsoft Office and OpenOffice over previous versions, new pricing options, conversion settings and tweaks, some small problems, other observations, and more. Take a look.

Amazon’s current generation of Fire tablets offer something for everyone, from the budget-conscious user who wants a super-cheap $50 tablet, to the consumer who’s willing to spend more in exchange for a larger format device with all the bells and whistles.

Today, we’re going to take a look at Amazon’s Fire HD 10 tablet which finds itself at the top of Amazon’s current slate offerings but for a very reasonable price for a 10-inch device.

When most people think of gaming PCs, I suspect they imagine models like the Acer Predator G3 – huge, floorboard-straining super-rigs.The Asus ROG G20BM aims to be different — a desk-friendly machine that, like the Alienware X51 — opts for a small form factor (SFF) case that means it's hardly any bigger than a games console. It has a much narrower footprint than the kind of flatter, wider cases often favored by mini-ITX builds. With its angular edges, the G20BM certainly has a look of Sony's PS4 about it. Asus hasn't completely rejected typical gaming PC excess, mind you — the Mayan-inspired patterning, customizable lighting and angular lines make the G20BM look like an alien obelisk fallen to Earth.The big squeezeThe G20BM's reduced bulk comes at a couple of costs. The first is the literal cost: it will set you back $1,040 (£750 in the UK, which is around AU$1,460), far more than the sum of its lower-end parts. That's £50 (around $70/AUS$95) more than the Predator G3, which doesn't look anywhere near as good on your desk but packs more of a punch for its asking price. The ROG G20BM is a huge pain to upgrade. Components are stacked on top of each other and held in place with numerous tiny screws.

Welcome to another Case Mod Friday showcase! This week we have Peter Brands' “L3peau” build. Here is what he had to say about it, "The first time when I saw the In Win D-Frame I thought … Liquidcooling! Tubing! More than a year later I got invited for the LDLC Modding Trophy to work with In Win and Bequiet, I felt so honored! Also very excited because I could finally see what could be done with the D-Frame Mini. My goal was to actually use the frame as a reservoir for the pc inside. With this mod I tried to use as many as possible easy tools like a jigsaw, handsaw, file, sandpaper, drill and described it in the logs so anyone could actually do this at home."

In our comparison tables, you can find test results regarding 48 recent air and watercoolers. Furthermore we do not comment the benchmark values. The idea and also the goal is to present to you a market overview which helps you choose the right cooler.

Denon is no industry lightweight when it comes to headphones, but we've spent very little time covering its recent offerings. These Denon AH-MM400 cans, though, have demanded we sit up and start paying attention again.Now, your first reaction to seeing that American walnut finish is probably either going to be one of abject horror, or a creeping sense that maybe your ears would look better cocooned in wood. Chances are there's little middle ground between the two.

In a world where pretty much only black headphones get bought – outside of the Beats ballpark – it's a fairly brave move for Denon to be flirting with such a divisive look for its high-end headphones.But it's also indicative of Denon looking to a more mature audience for these more audiophile-friendly cans than the sort of people who hang on Dre's coat-tails with his red, white and blue Beats.Build quality

It goes without saying that wireless charging is the start of the future now and it seems like Qi technology is going to take us there. Today we get to take a look at the Backbone iPhone Case and battery pack.

Following the success of the then-flagship X-Pro1, Fuji introduced the X-E1 and X-E2 models as similar, but more affordable, alternatives for the enthusiast user. Now, along with the arrival of the X-Pro2 and X-70 compact, the company has also refreshed its X-E line with the X-E2S. The X-E2S sits roughly in the middle of Fuji's X-series line-up, more advanced than the budget X-A2 and, to some extent, the similarly specified X-T10, but less so than the X-Pro2 and X-T1. As such, it's likely to appeal to those upgrading from junior models or seeking a backup for a more advanced camera. Its chief rivals from other manufacturers include the Olympus OM-D E-M10 II and the Panasonic Lumix GX8.As the 'S' suffix suggests, the camera is not as significant a step forward from the X-E2 as the X-E2 was from the X-E1, but a number of changes have nevertheless been made. These include a revised autofocus (AF) system, with 77 points (up from 49) and new Zone and Wide/Tracking modes, while focusing speeds are said to have been improved, now as fast as 0.06sec (a 0.02sec improvement over the X-E2).A new electronic shutter also joins the mechanical one; as well as allowing for shutter speeds as high as 1/32,000sec to be used this also provides a near-silent shutter operation, which may be handy when discretion is key.

I find motherboards to be extremely fascinating. Not only are they the heart of any computer system but they are the one component that also dictates what you can and cannot do with a particular system. For instance video card support is controlled by how many expansion slots your motherboard has. Memory support is physically controlled by the memory slot and drive connections by the available plugs. While every motherboard gives you a certain amount of expandability only a select few allow you control over those expansions and that is where things get interesting.

In this review I will be looking at the Gigabyte Z170X SOC Force motherboard. This is one of the latest Skylake enabled motherboard from Gigabyte designed for overclockers, gamers and hardware enthusiasts alike. The Z170X SOC Force is different from previous versions of the SOC in that it features an onboard PLX chip for proper 4-Way SLI and overbuilt everything for proper enthusiast level quality.

I was a bit surprised to see the Z170X SOC Force move back to its enthusiast level roots and mimic what Gigabyte did with the Z87X OC Force back in the Haswell days where they integrated everything into a single motherboard. It of course raised overall cost but gave enthusiasts and system builders everything they needed on a single platform. The Z170X SOC Force is taking that and pushing style and design one step further.

It is often thought that cheap motherboard are unsuitable for overclocking. They lack most overclocking options, such as extra power phases for the CPU. The MSI Z170A PC Mate we're discussing in this article only has six of them. We tested whether it is possible to decently overclock with it or not.

Motherboard manufacturers seems to believe that more is better, in terms of sales. The question remains how much this arms race actually helps 'normal' overclockers, especially since motherboards for overclockers are usually designed for LN2 users. Therefore it is important to know how much of this functionality is necessary, if you want to overclock well on air or water. Mid-range motherboards should be sufficient, but does this also apply to the cheapest Z170 motherboards? We tested this with the MSI Z170A PC Mate, the cheapest model we've received.

The Mushkin Redline series is engineered to provide magnificent reliability and low latency while utilizing impressive memory speeds well beyond the DDR4 standard. Each Mushkin kit undergoes a rigorous testing procedure to reduce the possibility of hardware failure and backed by a generous lifetime warranty. This gives the purchaser peace-of-mind and ensures their investment is protected. On another note, Mushkin use high-quality ICs to maximize performance by finding the perfect balance between frequency and latency.

Today we’re taking a detailed look at a 3000MHz 16GB quad channel kit which adopts Mushkin’s FrostByte heatsink design and features timings of 15-15-15-35. The memory’s impressive memory speed to latency ratio should result in exceptional numbers, and I expect to see it compare favourably against rival offerings.

Entry-level SSDs have been a hot commodity for many companies as of late. In the past few months we have seen many new TLC based options released into the market. Today, OCZ is back at it again with a new release, this time around it is an update to their entry-level SSD series, the OCZ Trion 150 (http://thessdreview.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=3d9b6193ffd32dd60e84fc74b&id=1f945296f7&e=312ec141fb) . By implementing Toshiba’s latest 15nm TLC NAND and improved firmware OCZ claims that users will see up to 50% faster performance over the original Trion 100. In addition to improved performance OCZ has also revamped the styling to an edgier look, and paired with a lower price point of just $0.27 per GB, the Trion 150 seems to be a very capable contender. Read on as we take a closer look to see how it performs in today’s review.

I think by now you have read quite a bit about Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Kwan and his dating advice. Whether it is the comparison of girls and cars, the emotional appeal of products, or more recently, the LPSE formula, we all can tell by now Jonathan Kwan is the master of relationships. All joking aside though, I was asked why I never give any dating or relationship advice, and today I can respond with three reasons. For one, APH Networks is not a dating website, and hopefully it never will become one. I do not really expect readers to be searching our site for such information. Secondly, I am not an expert on relationships, especially as I am quite new to it myself. If I had more experience, I probably would also have more to tell. But most importantly, I think I should only give advice I myself am for sure able to keep. If I provide insight on something, yet do not even heed my advice, it would make my advice quite hollow. In no ways am I trying to imply Jonathan does or does not follow the things he speaks of for these topics, but rather this is just my own opinion. This is not just for relationship advice either, and it can be expanded to other topics. No one follows those who tell others to "do as I say, but not as I do". I think it is important to ensure the claims of anything, whether a person or product, are backed up with actual proof. When Patriot released their gaming peripheral lineup, I was quite excited. As you have already seen with the Viper V360 and V560, results have been generally positive, with some tweaks to be had in each. The Viper V760 today is their mechanical keyboard with aircraft grade aluminum and a magnetic wrist rest. With full RGB lighting and much more, are these features just words on a page, or are there more than meets the eye? Hopefully this review will cover all your questions!

The Plantronics RIG 500E is their high-end gaming headset, it incorporates everything from the RIG 500 and RIG 500HD. The difference between the three models of this headset is that the RIG 500 includes the isolating ear cup design with the 3.5mm connection, while the RIG 500HD includes the USB Dolby 7.1 connector. The RIG 500E provides the best of both worlds, and provides you with both the 3.5mm and USB Dolby 7.1 connectors, and an additional ear cup model, which allows you to decide which design is better for the situation. Read on to learn how it performs.

The Xbox One controller is a fantastic product, having taken the best parts of the 360 gamepad while improving key areas – but is there room for further tweaks? Today we are taking a look at Razer’s spin on the Xbox One controller in the form of the Razer Wildcat, offering additional reprogrammable buttons, an improved design and enhanced build quality.

SilverStone recently expanded its Strider line with three new Platinum-rated units with capacities ranging from 550W to 750W. The family's flagship is being tested today, which includes fully modular cabling and compact dimensions.

Intel recently released their Greenlow based Skylake series Xeon CPUs and it’s a pleasure to take a look at the first enterprise-grade motherboard built for these processors today. I have Supermicro’s X11SAE motherboard on the test bench which is a standard ATX-sized single CPU board, but one with all the trimmings.

“Supermicro’s new X11 UP workstations, long-life embedded systems and motherboards integrate the latest technologies such as USB 3.1 and M.2 as well as step up performance, density and efficiency to provide a new generation of Green Computing solutions,” said Charles Liang, President and CEO of Supermicro. “Indeed, with Supermicro’s first-to-market integration, advanced engineering and architecture expertise, we deliver the widest range of Skylake-S platforms available to the industry, enabling our customers with exactly the best competitive advantage on the market.”

Supermicro’s X11SAE doesn’t just support the new Greenlow Intel Xeon E3-1200 v5 family CPUs, you can also use 6th Gen Core i7, i5, i3, Pentium, and Celeron series processors. The brain behind the motherboard is the new C236 chipset which comes with a lot of enhancements over the predecessors and Supermicro generally added the newest technologies to this motherboard. Additionally, the motherboard supports up to 64GB DDR4 2133MHz ECC UDIMMs in its 4 sockets. While this motherboard does support ECC and non-ECC modules, it doesn’t support RDIMMS, so make sure you get the right ones.

It was roughly a year ago that we had a chance to review Dell’s XPS 13, which was the first laptop from Dell to feature the Infinity Edge display. In addition to making the laptop look as much like a bezel-less display as possible, it also let Dell squeeze a 13-inch laptop into a much smaller chassis. The XPS 13 is still, to this day, unparalleled in the PC space in this context. So the obvious question at the time was when or if Dell was going to do the same to the rest of the XPS lineup? That question was answered in October 2015, when Dell launched the updated XPS 15 with Skylake and Infinity Edge. Just like the XPS 13 before it, the laptop was bezel-less and the larger 15.6-inch model fits into a laptop chassis that would normally house a 14-inch display. Smaller, lighter, and with the same styling as the XPS 13, Dell has the potential to set the bar higher in the larger laptop segment as well.

With enough interior space for up to 20 fans or 8 radiators, seven 3.5" or eight 2.5" drives and the largest possible hardware components the Core X9 E-ATX Cube Case by Thermaltake is one of the largest cases in the market today.